At First Glance
by Nadia Rose
Summary: Somewhere, in a universe that went far differently, Bardock is given a chance to meet the family he never knew he had. vignette


A/N:  This is a vignette from the _House of Ashes _storyline.  Which probably won't be actually put in the story, but I liked it too much to keep it hoarded and not share.  So enjoy!

Disclaimer:  I don't own DBZ.

At First Glance

by Nadia Rose

The first thing Bardock was aware of was that there was something on his chest, and, that, curiously, the stinging torrents of pain he had become accustomed to were gone.  It had been replaced by deep aches, but Bardock preferred aching to flat out open pain.  Too much time had passed locked away in Frieza's dungeons—so much that he wasn't sure he could feel anything but pain anymore.

The sight that met his eyes when he actually got around to opening them proved that idea wrong, because shock raced through his veins.  The source of the pressure on his chest was a small boy, no bigger than Kakarotto had been when he'd last seen him, a chubby little round child with wild black hair and, much to Bardock's surprise, a fuzzy brown tail that waved behind him.

Seeing that the Saiyan was awake, the child managed a wide grin and gurgled, reaching out to grab Bardock's nose with pudgy fingers.  He caught the offending hand in one of his own, marveling at the monstrous difference in size.  The chibi giggled and pulled his hand away with surprising strength, planting both hands on Bardock's chest and watching him.

Bardock gazed back.  "Who the hell are you, kid?"

He received a smile and a string of baby nonsense in reply.  Damn.  The mysterious Saiyan just had to be too young to talk yet.  He'd just have to find out what he needed to know himself.  Deftly removing the child off his chest in a smooth move that suggested practice, he tucked the child under one arm and pushed himself up with the other to take stock of his surroundings.

His resting place was really simple—stone walls, a window through which he could see a star-filled sky, and a massive wooden dresser.  Primitive—something Frieza wouldn't have even bothered with.  The lamp on the bedside table even had a filamentous bulb—had he been thrown into the Stone Age?

He shifted his arm as the small chibi beneath it squirmed, trying to get his hands on Bardock's tail.  "Easy there chimp," he murmured softly, pulling his tail out of reach.  "You don't want that."

The boy pushed his lower lip out and pouted, reminding Bardock so much of Radditz when he was a baby he almost laughed.  "Don't pout," he chided, unable to help himself.  "What will you do if your face freezes that way?"

He received a wrinkled nose in reply, and a small hand that crept up towards his face.

Upending the child in one arm, only conditioning kept him from jumping out of his skin when the door swung open and an alien woman bustled in, a basket under one arm.  She turned to shut the door, closing off Bardock's view of the hallway beyond—he noticed there wasn't a lock on the door—without even looking at the bed.

"You still watching him for me Gohan?"  She deposited the basket on the floor at the foot of the bed and looked, up, meeting his eyes.  "Oh," she sighed softly, one hand rising to her face.  "You're awake."

Bardock narrowed his eyes.  She wasn't Saiyan.  Her hair might have been the right color, but it was far too limp, and she lacked the animalistic grace that all Saiyans seemed to possess in spades.  The chibi in his arms squirmed down, crawling across the bed and Bardock's legs to get to the woman, who settled him on one hip.  He caught the long braid that dangled over one of her shoulders and put the end of it in his mouth to suck on while he watched the older Saiyan with enormous eyes.

The girl let him do it and stared at Bardock.  "You should still be lying down.  Your strength hasn't come back yet."

He glared at her, feeling his pride resurface in broken fragments.  He was a Saiyan!  She was just a weakling alien…whatever species she happened to be.  She had no right to order him around.  "Don't order me around," he growled.  "I'm fine."

"You're weak," she snapped in reply, digging through the baskets.  "When we pulled you out of the pod you were basically dead; you're just lucky that Krillin's as good with herbs as he is.  You were delirious for a month!"  A wad of fresh bandages appeared in her free hand, and she sat the chibi at the foot of the bed to pull a tray of bottles out of the cabinet against one wall.

She sat down on the bed next to him and grabbed his arm, cutting the old bandages away with a pocketknife.  "You're on Earth, by the way."

Bardock froze.  Earth.  Earth was the planet his youngest son had been shipped off to just days before Frieza had destroyed Vegeta-sei.  He gazed at the little boy who was happily playing with the fringe on one of the blankets with a much different eye.

"My name's Mao Chichi," the woman continued, gently washing the healing wounds on his arm with warm water.  "That's my son Gohan," she commented, following his gaze.  She cocked her head and stared at him for a moment with eyes as dark as any Saiyan's.  "He's your grandson."

Bardock froze and stared up at her in shock.  "One of my sons is still alive?"  He had never foreseen that—not at all.

Chichi looked up at him for a moment, eyebrows pulled together in a thoughtful frown.  "They both were the last time I saw them—but that was a little over a year ago.  A lot could have happened since then."

She reached for the bandages, and Bardock edged away.  "I don't need those.  I'll heal just fine on my own."  He kept himself from swaying with an effort—showing that he was weakened had always spurred more beatings when he was Frieza's prisoner.

Strong hands held him down, and a fierce gaze was pinned to his face.  "You can let me do this the easy way, or I can go get one of the frying pans that weigh almost as much I do and we can do it the hard way."  She resembled his beloved Rhube so much in that instant that Bardock found himself obeying automatically, holding his arm out to be bandaged.

"Where are my sons?  I'd really…like to see them."

"They went with Vegeta and Nappa to fight Frieza."  Her tone was brisk as bandages were wrapped around his arm.

Bardock swallowed.  Frieza would kill them in a heartbeat if he was being kind.  If not, they would face the rest of their lives as he had on a prison colony.  How had even gotten from the colony to Earth?  "I'll find them," he vowed, trying to stand up.

He was promptly shoved back into the bed.  "You're in no condition to go into space, Bardock.  And even if you were, you couldn't go.  We scrapped the pod—it was too damaged to make another flight anyway."

"But my sons," Bardock protested…"Frieza.  Frieza will…" he trailed off.

"Yes," she returned dryly, "I know.  There's nothing that could have stopped them from going.  Kami knows I tried."  She cocked her head and glanced down at the little boy.  "The Saiyan race isn't quite gone yet.  There's you and Gohan."

Her bandaging done, the woman rose and began to clean up the mess she'd just created.  "If they survive, they know where Earth is, and that they're always welcome.  Right now you need to heal, not worry.  Worrying is my job around here."

The salves and bandages were packed away again, and she hefted the little boy—Bardock's grandson—to her hip.  "I have things to do, but Lunch is cleaning down the hall.  If you need anything, she can hear you."

Bardock eyed the little boy, and was struck by a sudden desire to well…know.  "M'lady," he spoke softly, making the woman turn around in the doorway.  "Gohan…who—whose…"

Pink lips set in a firm line for a moment, and Bardock was sure she wasn't going to answer him, but then she shrugged.  "Gohan is Kakarot's son, Bardock.  Now get some sleep.  I'll be back by dinnertime."  She turned and was gone, leaving him alone in the primitive hellhole his son had been sent to exterminate and failed, leaving him with so many thoughts he thought his head would explode.

Neither expected that what had just happened would be the start of one of the most unusual friendships on the planet.

Finis.


End file.
